We welcome all good folks to drop by State Rep Carol Alvarado’s Birthday Seafood Celebration and Fundraiser this Sunday, November 1 from 2 to 5 pm at the Bamboo Lounge, 2910 Navigation. Even if you can’t make a donation, drop on by anyway. It’ll probably be the last political event before Election Day. They have a few flat screens so you can catch the Texans while you chat about who will get into the run-off with CM Peter Brown.

The folks that are supporting H-Town mayoral candidates Controller Annise Parker and Gene Locke are not too happy with Peter spending his kazillions. Of course these same folks probably didn’t say a peep when Mayor White spent his kazillions in 2003. In fairness though, Mayor White also raised kazillions and Brown has probably only raised a kazillion. I hope this isn’t a case of ageism.

Commentary isn’t offended by Peter’s spending. I look at it as a local stimulus package. It is good to be on the sidelines.

Meanwhile, I got another version of Peter’s mail that cracks on Annise and Gene – ouch!

From the Who Gives a Rat’s Arse Dept., those Burnt Tangerine folks from Austin endorsed in the H-Town mayoral race – huh! I think I’ll ask Kuffer to interview Austin city candidates when they have their elections.

The political buzz yesterday was about CM Jolanda Jones pulling more support than her nemesis CM Sue Lovell in the Chron poll. The buzz yesterday also was about Mayor White getting involved against Peter Brown if Peter makes the run-off as we head into the final weekend so stay tuned! If I was the mayor, I would stay out of it.

The Yankees evened it up last night as the ‘Stros get ready to host a major sleepover tomorrow night – oh my!

I guess if you have the lead, you’re going to get attacked. Some folks think the Chron has it out for CM Peter Brown and is giving run to his opponents’ claims that Peter is misleading voters. I’m not going to defend Peter. He can do that himself. I’m not going to call out the Chron. The Annise Parker campaign is saying that Brown’s charge that Parker has mismanaged the city dollars is dead wrong. Even Mayor White came to Annise’s defense. However, my friend Bill King has written that the city is not in good financial shape.

Parker in her ad cracks on using money to build stadiums. Hey, we – the voters – have had that debate three times in the last 13 years, and twice the voters have said A-OK to using the money for sports venues.

Gene Locke, in his ad takes credit for Downtown development. He can take credit but I would put about 100 folks ahead of him including Drayton, Mayor Bob, Mayor Brown, Mayor White, Pam-In-Charge, Bob Eury, State Rep Carol Alvarado, Robert Miller, Les Alexander, CM James Rodriguez, heck even Ken Lay. Last week, the Chron had a blazing headline that said the Sports Authority had done a bad deal. Gene Locke has been their lawyer and Brown hit him on this in a mailer. If Brown had been on the Sports Authority, believe me, Parker and Locke would be giving him the business.

In my book, it is just your typical charges flying in the last days of a campaign – yawn. Meanwhile, the Lovelier Wendy called me last night and said that Peter is now running an ad that zings Gene.

So we went to vote yesterday at Moody Park which is in the ‘hood and they asked for a photo I.D. – huh. Commentary always votes with my license anyway so I just whupped it right out. Folks that were with me objected and told the election officials – all Latino/Latinas and one African American – they must not have been paying attention because the bill didn’t pass. After some back and forth, I kind of whispered to my folks that go on ahead and show them the IDs because I didn’t want to get my arse run out of the polling place. They did and we all voted. Afterwards, I called the County Clerk’s office and they weren’t too happy that we had been asked to show our photo ID and were going to look into the matter. It is kind of sad that it happened down the street in the ‘hood.

I’ll be voting early today with Bethany and I still don’t know who gets my vote for H-Town mayor. Jose and Jerome came by a couple of days ago with a Gene Locke autographed door hanger and mailer. Last night when I was putting out the trash, I saw a pickup truck pull up in front of my place and I thought my Anna Eastman sign was fixing to get snatched away. Instead it was Eric Zuniga and a buddy making a late night delivery of the Peter Brown booklet. Of course, I couldn’t recognize Eric because sometimes I don’t see too well at night.

I asked CM James Rodriguez who he and Wendy would be voting for and he said they’ll be making a game day decision.

Speaking of yard signs, some arsehole sprayed painted a swastika on an Anna Eastman sign in front of his home. Apparently a volunteer put it in the wrong yard and instead of the home owner just removing the sign he thought it would look better with a swastika on it. Commentary went over there and the fella proudly admitted his artwork and as far as he was concerned it could stay there until E-Day. I said no thanks and took the sign.

I got a mailer yesterday from the Peter Brown campaign and he hit Annise Parker and Gene pretty good. It also contained an unflattering pic of Annise. That’s politics.

Commentary will be going to the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new St. Arnold Brewery this evening – Amber Heaven – cool.

I’m OK with Brad Mills as our new skipper. At the beginning of the interview process, I told Pam-In-Charge that he would be my pick because of his resume and his coming from a championship culture. I’m glad they listened to me as the World Serious begins this evening and we might know who’s in the runoff before we have a World Serious Champion.

It’s 24% for CM Peter Brown, 16% for Controller Annise Parker, 14% for Gene Locke, 5% for Roy Morales, 41% for Undecided according to the Channel 11 poll that was released last night. Peter has to be feeling good this morning and Annise and Gene have to be feeling quite nervous.

In last night’s report, here’s what the pollster, Rice’s Bob Stein, had to say: “It seems very likely that if this trend holds up, that Peter Brown will be in the runoff. The most likely opponent will be Annise Parker, but that is still very much up in the air.”

Here’s what political consultant Mustafah Tameez said in today’s Chron: “I don’t think there is or ever has been a true frontrunner in this race.”

Here’s what political consultant Keir Murray said in today’s Chron: “It’s clear that Brown has moved up, but I don’t think there’s any question that his support is soft. These candidates have really got to bust their butts … to make the finals. It’s anybody’s game.”

Here’s what Commentary said in today’s Chron: “They can’t challenge what he’s (Brown) spending on TV or mail and won’t be able to use any of their resources to attack him. They need to spend all their money trying to get their vote out … I just don’t see how he’s denied.”

In my book, Peter Brown is looking pretty good this morning. Right now it is hard for me to picture a Parker-Locke runoff.

Mark McGwire is getting back into baseball as the new Hitting Coach for the Cards. I’m OK with that as the ‘Stros may announce the skipper pick today and we have to wait until next July 9 to see the Cards at The Yard.

HISD Trustee candidate Anna Eastman (Commentary’s client) won the endorsement of the Harris County Women’s Political Caucus this past Friday. Congrats go to Anna Eastman!

I’ve decided that I’m not going to pick a mayoral candidate in this first round. Two people that I highly respect say they would be A-OK if any of the three leading contenders – CM Peter Brown, Gene Locke, and Controller Annise Parker – were our next mayor. I have to agree. The fact is, I like all three and consider them all buddies. I don’t agree with everything they have been saying during this campaign, but that’s the nature of campaigns. Of course, I’ll have to vote for one of them when I go vote early later on this week with Bethany. Maybe I’ll vote for the first one that finally gets around to sending me a mail piece.

Meanwhile, the Gene Locke and Peter Brown campaigns held dueling press conferences yesterday on who has more African American support. It obviously says something about Brown’s support among African American voters if the Locke campaign has to resort to accusing Brown of buying up African American votes. Let’s see if Gene has any luck taking away Peter’s street cred. You have to wonder how this feud is playing out among non African American voters.

One Of My Best Friends is celebrating a BD today. Happy Birthday to Carol Alvarado who still doesn’t need touching up. Carol shares a BD with her good friend Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Yankees will make their 40th World Serious appearance this Wednesday. That’s 39 more than the ‘Stros who will pick a skipper in the next day or so.

The Gene Locke for Mayor Campaign had no choice but to go negative against CM Peter Brown in order to shore up their support among African American voters. Check out the story in today’s Chron. The negative ad is an acknowledgement that they are running third and they need to do better in the African American community if they want to make the runoff. We will see if it works – stay tuned.

Meanwhile, the Controller Annise Parker and Locke campaigns are hosting events in H-Town’s Northside this weekend in hopes of getting Latino voters to the Moody Park Early Voting place. I hope they have success as the latest Kyle Johnston Campaigns report has the Latino portion of the overall H-Town vote at a steady and “anemic” 8%.

The CM Ron Green for City Controller Campaign took a direct hit yesterday over IRS issues – ouch! Check it out in today’s Chron. Commentary ran into some Dem leaders last night and they weren’t too happy with Green about this. They think that this sinks Green’s chances. It is going to be very difficult to get elected to be the city’s fiscal watchdog while having IRS issues hanging over you.

Commentary got a bunch of BD notes yesterday after CEWDEM put it out in cyberville and he also released other key info that needed to be out there – stay tuned!

Congrats go to Pam-In-Charge for being Mujer Numero Uno again in the MLB if you know what I mean!

“Astroboy” the movie opens today as the ‘Stros the team gets closer to naming a skipper.

At yesterday’s TV taping at KTRK-TV (Channel 13), Dr. Tatcho Mindiola described the H-Town Latino vote in municipal elections as “anemic.” According to the numbers put out last night by Kyle Johnston Campaigns, only 8% of the total H-Town early vote after three days is Latino – pitiful. Is this the result of a lack of Latino voter outreach by the mayoral campaigns? Is this the result of a lack of a field program by the mayoral campaigns in the Latino community? Is the Latino voter just not connecting with the mayoral candidates or vice versa? Or is it all of the above. What’s the point of all those Latino leader and organizational endorsements if the Latino turnout is actually decreasing? Maybe the Latino voter turnout will kick start at Controller Annise Parker’s Huevos Rancheros Early Vote Rally down the street from Commentary’s ‘hood this Sunday which I’ll be at because I like huevos rancheros. Maybe it’ll kick start if CMs James Rodriguez and Ed Gonzalez weigh in. By the way, you can check out Commentary, Tatcho, State Rep Jessica Farrar, and Michael Trevino talk about the elections this Sunday at 11:30 am on Channel 13.

Commentary and Hall of Famer and Yankee pitching great Whitey Ford celebrated BDs yesterday. I got candy, a cool baseball book, The Beatles remastered sampler, a pecan pie that is about halfway scarfed down, the Pass the Popcorn game, a gift certificate, and a cool MLB pullover windbreaker that I’m wearing today.

The ‘Stros are having a Halloween night sleepover at The Yard. Instead of showing scary movies on the Jumbotron, they are going to show this past season highlights – yikes! It looks like we might get us a skipper before the World Serious starts – stay tuned!